Carabids benefit from severe ungulate browsing in postmining oak landscapes

Forest reclamation on postmining substrates often relies on the use of single-species plantings, but the ecological quality depends on how the stand structure develops and how strongly browsing alters that development. We sampled ground beetles (Carabidae) with standardized pitfall traps in the ČSA lignite mine (Czech Republic) across five habitat states formed by Quercus robur reclamations and a spontaneous succession reference: youngest oak stands, intermediate oak stands, old oak stands, browsing-damaged oak stands, and spontaneous succession sites. We quantified the assemblage structure, traits, and rarity, and linked the species found to national record-based trend categories to place local patterns in a broader context (by comparing number of records in 1980–2015 and 2016–2025). The youngest oak stands represented the poorest assemblage state, with extreme numerical dominance and the lowest evenness, which is consistent with strong environmental filtering under open, early-stage conditions. In the browsing pressure-redirected reclamation trajectories, browsing-damaged stands differed from intermediate and old stands and maintained a more heterogeneous assemblage composition than expected from the stand age alone. Spontaneous succession supported relatively even communities and contributed complementary assemblage components to the reclaimed forest mosaic. The examined assemblages were dominated by taxa that increased at the national level, but their representation varied significantly across habitat states: early stands were most strongly skewed toward taxa sharply increasing at the national level, whereas browsing-damaged stands and spontaneous succession sites contained higher shares of taxa mildly increasing or declining at the national level. Reclamation does not converge on a single endpoint; managing browsing and maintaining habitat mosaics can accelerate forest development while retaining disturbance-associated specialists. • Young oak stands had the poorest carabid assemblages and extreme dominance. • Browsing altered oak stand trajectories and reshaped beetle community structure. • Browsed stands differed from intermediate and old stands despite a similar planting era. • Browsing maintained an open structure and prevented convergence toward older stands. • Young stands were most skewed toward sharply increasing carabid species.